To do their best work, people need to feel valued, appreciated, and fulfilled. That doesn’t change just because we connect over Zoom and Slack, rather than in boardrooms and coffee shops.
But creating engagement in virtual workplaces can seem like a puzzle. Engagement is about genuine connection, both with our work and with each other. How does that work when we rarely (if ever) see each other face to face?
The answer is planning, creativity, and a bit of technological wizardry. There are so many ways to create moments of fun, connection, and growth. Virtual employee engagement activities can resemble Zoom parties, group meditations, employee engagement games, and even one-on-one meetings with your company’s CEO.
As these virtual employee engagement ideas show, you can have both: tight-knit, highly engaged teams, and all the amazing perks that remote work can offer. The only limit is your own imagination.
1. Virtual cafes
Part of what makes office work so special are the spontaneous conversations that happen between other tasks. But there’s no reason you can’t bring those bonding moments to a virtual workplace, too—you just need to be intentional about it.
Try to schedule a standing 15-minute “coffee break” Zoom call twice a day. When the coffee break rolls around, anyone between tasks can drop by, catch up, and relax.
2. Home visits
Why not find out where your colleagues live and work? This could be especially interesting if you’re a distributed team that’s located across the country (or the world).
Try to keep a slot open for a home visit on your team’s calendar once a month. Interested team members can sign up to show their colleagues around your home!
Just make sure you make it optional. Some people may not feel comfortable showing off their living space, and that’s okay.
3. Show and tell
Show and tell is a fun and playful way to allow people to bring their lives and personalities into a virtual workplace! Participants can share family knick-knacks or photos, something related to their hobby, or a creative project.
Like home tours, try to keep an open space of show-and-tell time, potentially as part of a catch-up or all-out gathering. Anyone who wants can sign up to share!
4. One-on-one video calls with the founder or CEO
Give employees the opportunity to share their goals, interests, and questions directly with the founder (or senior leader) of your company. Not only could it lead to a mutually beneficial relationship, but it can also help employees feel more connected to the organization as a whole.
These leaders are often quite busy, which means these connections won’t happen unless you plan to, especially in a virtual workspace without the possibility of chance encounters.
5. Online training
Professional development and goal support are two clear drivers of employee engagement.
Give your people a way to develop their skills and continue to grow with free and easily accessible online training.
People can gain knowledge that they will use in their current role or skills that are relevant to where they want to be in the future.
6. Feedback sessions
Employees are not mind readers; just like anyone else, they need feedback to improve. To create better performance and results, feedback cannot be treated as an afterthought in a virtual workplace.
Hold regular 1-1 meetings with all team members, including time to provide and discuss feedback. Ideally, use a tool like 15Five that allows you to record feedback, track it over time, and translate it into actionable goals.
7. Multiplayer games
Bring some fun, competitive spirit to your next team building session! There are so many ways to play together, with hundreds of options, from super simple to advanced.
For an affordable option, consider online office games like this one drawing game either Scratch. If your team already has enthusiastic players, you can even log into your favorite online role-playing game, such as Minecraft either Robloxtogether.
8. Dedicated Home Office Backgrounds
Show employees you care about their comfort with a home office upgrade stipend. Provide ideas and guidancefrom lower back support to better lighting, if people aren’t sure where to start.
This is not just a nice gesture: a comfortable and ergonomic office space will improve productivity. Just remember, this is a small fraction of the cost of running a traditional company office!
9. Virtual Employee Recognition/Appreciation Day
Recognizing people’s hard work is the most important way to keep them satisfied, engaged, and motivated. Did you know that companies that emphasize recognition tend to have 31% lower voluntary turnover, and are 12x Are you more likely to get good trading results?
Unfortunately, not all employee recognition is created equal. Even with the best of intentions, it’s easy to make mistakes and make a gesture that falls short or feels insincere. Get our tips for meaningful employee recognition here.
10. Guided Meditations
Invest in the mental health of your workforce! Meditation is one of the healthiest and most accessible ways to relieve and manage stress. You can conduct guided group meditations as a team bonding activity or give employees access to apps like Calm or Headspace.
This can be an especially powerful strategy if wellness is one of your company’s core values. Not only are you equipping your people with healthy coping skills, but you’re also showing them that you truly live by their values.
11. Virtual Murder Mystery
These fun and engaging games are the perfect way to make your next virtual team party a little more exciting! These professionally hosted, interactive games allow colleagues to dig deeper, search for clues, and unravel a story together.
Here are some deals to check out.
12. Theme days
Get into the holiday spirit with fun themed days at your workplace, even if you don’t have the time or budget for a full party!
For example, to celebrate Valentine’s Day, you could wear pink and red (or use a pink Zoom filter), offer chocolate delivery vouchers, and try indications of thematic meetings!
13. Virtual events
The sky is the limit when it comes to virtual events. Most people associate virtual events with parties, but you can also purchase tickets for your team to virtual industry conferences, workshops, and fundraisers.
That said, it’s always a good time for a party. Why not save space in your calendar for a virtual party every month? If there is no special holiday that month like Easter or Halloween, have everyone vote on an activity or topic.
14. Virtual birthday parties
There is no reason to reserve the celebration for the big holidays like Christmas and New Years. Why not make a habit of celebrating all your team’s birthday
Saying “happy birthday” doesn’t need to be a huge production, or even take place after hours. Making people feel special can be as simple as a gift card to their favorite store, a cupcake delivery at lunchtime, and a virtual card, carefully signed by all team members.
15. Virtual Happy Hours
In many industries, after-work drinks are a hotspot for networking and building relationships. You can also promote that kind of culture in a virtual workplace; plus, it will be easier to make non-drinkers feel welcome.
Once or twice a week, invite employees to connect after work over their favorite beverage, from wine and martinis to tea and kombucha. You could even host a virtual mixology class for everyone to take together!
16. Virtual Book Club
Book clubs translate especially well in a virtual setting. Everyone in the club can vote on what they would like to read, with a virtual poll tool like survey monkey.
In addition to a monthly discussion session, why not set up a Slack channel so people can chat about the book while reading it?
17. GIF Wars
GIFs are a completely modern way of communicating. So why not have some fun with them in a 21st century remote workplace?
To run a GIF battle, you’ll come up with fun, relatable categories like “me logging in on a Monday” or “how it feels to ship new features.”
Share each message in the team chat and let everyone take a few minutes to find a great GIF to reply to. Everyone can vote for a winner or assign a ‘GIF judge’ to choose from. Alternatively, everyone can create their own announcement and choose the best GIF from their teammates’ responses.
18. Virtual movie parties
Movie night is a fun and relaxing way for employees to unwind together, especially if you want to stay away from alcohol-related activities. TO virtual surveillance party service it makes sure everyone is connected and watching at exactly the same time.
Be sure to save time to talk about the movie afterwards (or during). You can even send people coupons for popcorn and candy delivery!
continue participating
In a virtual workplace, you don’t have the luxury of second guessing how engaged your employees are; you need data to be sure. That’s the idea behind 15Five’s easy-to-use, evidence-based tools for assessing and analyzing employee engagement.
Stay on top of the pulse of your organization, find out what’s working (and what’s not), and equip employees and managers with the tools they need to achieve their engagement goals.
Learn more about 15Five’s engagement assessment tools today.
